Ellen Pao stepped down as Reddit's CEO on Friday, and will be replaced by Reddit founder Steve Huffman.

"We are thankful for Ellen's many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally," Sam Altman, Reddit board member, wrote in a post. "She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives, and drove growth. She brought a face to reddit that changed perceptions, and is a pioneer for women in the tech industry. She will remain as an advisor to the board through the end of 2015. I look forward to seeing the great things she does beyond that."

In her own note, Pao said that the Reddit board "asked me to demonstrate higher user growth I the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining Reddit's core principles."

The move comes after Redditors created a Change.org petition that called for Pao's resignation because she ushered in "a new age of censorship." As of this afternoon, it had more than 213,000 signatures.

While that might sound innocuous, many Redditors did not take too kindly to the move, which involved banning several particularly noxious forums. As The Washington Postreported, some responded by creating sub-Reddits that focused the harassment on Pao.

In his post, Altman said that was "sickening."

"The reduction in compassion that happens when we're all behind computer screens is not good for the world," he wrote. "People are still people even if there is Internet between you. If the reddit community cannot learn to balance authenticity and compassion, it may be a great website but it will never be a truly great community. Steve's great challenge as CEO will be continuing the work Ellen started to drive this forward."

Pao, meanwhile, said she saw "the good, the bad, and the ugly" on Reddit during her eight-month tenure, and "the ugly made me doubt humanity." But she thanked those who were positive. "There were some days when your PMs [private messages] inspired me more than you can imagine."

Things came to a head, however, when Reddit fired a popular employee, Victoria Taylor, whose main responsibility had been running the Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q&A sessions on the site. But moderators felt that she was responsive to their needs and enjoyed working with her. In response, moderators made many of the site's most heavily trafficked sub-Reddits private so that much of Reddit was inaccessible. They came back online a day later, but the damage had been done thanks to the initial silence from Pao and other Reddit execs.

The reason for Taylor's dismissal was not released, but she appeared on Reddit this week to thank the community for their "extraordinary kindness and support."

"I know many of you may be curious about what's next for me, and I'm still figuring that out. However, I can assure you, wherever the road leads, I will live up to the faith you've had in me," she wrote. "You can take the woman out of reddit, but you can't take the reddit out of the woman. I believe in you. And that's a promise."

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In his post, Altman reached out to the moderators. "Mods, you are what makes reddit great," he wrote. "The reddit team, now with Steve, wants to do more for you. You deserve better moderation tools and better communication from the admins."

He also promised "clarity about what the content policy of reddit is going to be," as well as a bigger focus on mobile.

Pao, meanwhile, has had a rather tumultuous year. She lost a gender discrimination suit against venture firm Kleiner Perkins in March, a case that is still playing out in court.

About the Author

Before joining PCMag.com, Chloe covered financial IT for Incisive Media in NYC and technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's deg... See Full Bio

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